Our very own Alamo

The platoon has picked up sticks and resettled into our own joint service site--this one is a little closer to Baghdad and doubles as an Iraqi Police(IP) station. The IP's keep things interesting during the day, whether its knocking on our office door to ask for water or a pistol permit at ALL hours of the day or bringing in the rowdy "he keeps on throwing bottles at my sheep" crowd for a few hours of cool down in the slammer. It is pretty exciting to be out on our own without the demeaning stare of the higher brass glaring down at us. I guess it still does, but only from cameras far, far away. And the best part is, the mission is still getting done, without higher being around to yell about cleanliness of the food serving area or the proper way to wear a uniform, the food serving area is neat and uniforms are still being worn. We get a lot of 'walk-in' traffic throughout the day, local leaders stumping for a project to improve their area, random tips about IED's everywhere, and of course people stopping by to see if we are willing to give them 'chocolata' but its not too bad. Because at least they are coming in to us and not just spinning out of control in a hopeless situation which some people back home seem to think. Of course the potential for this sudden and violent spin is there and might just be on standby, but for the time being the area is safe and I am happy to say most of my time each day is spent discussing which water pipes to fix or schools to send desks to rather than who in the world shot at us the other day. Yes the responsibility has increased greatly from being one of four platoons at a JSS to the only one that is taking care of the patrolling, guarding, maintaining, and every other aspect that goes into running a combat outpost but I think we have adapted well and our enjoying the increased load, mainly because it is up to us how we handle it.

We have changed bosses in a way, I have gone from one troop to another in the Cavalry Squadron we are attached to. It is actually the same troop I worked for a year when I first arrived at Hawaii so I know everybody, which made the transition much smoother. I am definitely thrilled to still be working for the Cavalry as opposed to being stuck on one of the larger FOBs or Camps which smack of garrison life back home complete with paperwork by the truckloads and random taskings to complete some detail to fit somebody's taste.

The new area is still a mix of Shia and Sunni but they have been living together for as several generations so that is nothing new for them. They have done a great job of standing up their own security checkpoints for their villages and the men who run these seem to be honest and hard working.

So that is the quick update on what I am actually doing out in this neck of the woods.